Opinion

Morgan County beet harvest good, corn fair

Cost of feed affecting livestock producers

Grain yields in Morgan County are expected to be less this year than last year due to the drought.
(
Picasa
)

The yield from the local fall harvest is looking fair to good and prices for commodities are good, but the cost of feed for livestock is prohibitively high.

The Morgan County corn harvest is almost done, with 95 percent of that harvest done, said Tim Urban, grain superintendent for M and M Cooperative in Brush.

Individual fields were "hit and miss" in terms of conditions, and dryland corn was essentially a bust this year, he said.

That means the cooperative expects less grain this year, Urban said.

However, the prices are holding at about $7.40 a bushel, so those who had water are doing pretty well.

The Western Sugar Cooperative has seen good yields at about 32 tons of sugar beets per acre, and only about 60 to 70 acres still need to be harvested, said Mike Otto, senior agriculturist for the co-op.

That is a pretty good yield, since it has averaged about 28 tons per acre the last couple of years, he said.

The crop had enough water in the spring to get started, and the sunshine supported good growth, Otto said.

Sugar content is good, too, at about 16.5 percent, which is about the same as the last couple of years, he said.

It does not look like Western Sugar will have a surplus. Co-op officials had considered feeding any surplus to livestock, but that will not be necessary, Otto said.

Statewide, about 90 percent of the corn was harvested by the end of last week, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

That was 18 percentage points above the five-year average -- again due to the many days of strong sunshine this summer.

Advertisement

The sugar beet harvest was about 93 percent done across the state at the end of last week.

The sunflower crop was about 74 percent complete.

While the area has seen precipitation recently, soil moisture ratings continue to show extremely dry conditions in most fields.

Only 32 percent of fields are reported to have adequate topsoil moisture, and only 9 percent reported having adequate subsoil moisture.

That means the effects of the summer drought continue, which is bad news for winter wheat planters.

It is very expensive for livestock producers to feed their animals, with alfalfa commanding up to $300 a ton. Only a few years ago, the price was under $100 a ton.

That makes it hard on dairies, too.

NASS says stored feed supplies continue to be rated as short for this time of year.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.